I have enjoyed Mr. McCormack's earlier books very much. So I was surprised that I did not find this one very valuable. If you read many of my reviews, you know it is unusual for me to grade a book down to a 3 star rating. Let me explain why I did so in this case.

First, the title suggests that the book will provide lots of perspective on the Internet Age. Wrong! In fact, there is very little discussion of the Internet. And most of that discussion is in the introduction where Mr. McCormack points out that he doesn't even use a computer. He makes several self-revealing comments. "But let's say I'm a reluctant convert to the Internet gospel." "My only problem is that I don't understand what it will grow into." "I have the luxury of being in the sports business which, as far as I can tell, is one 'industry' that's immune to the Internet." In a few other cases he provides anecdotes from his business career about people overusing e-mail rather than talking to each other by telephone or face-to-face. As a result, he misses important questions. How can his agency develop more business by using the Internet in new ways? So, I think the title is very misleading. Anyone who wants to get practical advice for working with the Internet should avoid this book.

The second problem I saw was that I saw no important new material in the book. The principles are all covered in his earlier books. You get 90 principles described here in 2-4 pages. The examples are all from the author's business, so you get little sense of other businesses or perspectives that might be best practices. They also reflect a perspective that many may not share.

Here are some of the subjects:

Giving Yourself a Reality Check

Speed, the Defining Factor

Giving the Workplace a Reality Check

Office Politics

Acquiring a Power Base

Promotions, Demotions, and other Career Hiccups

Rules for Deal Makers

When You Are in Charge

Etiquette for the New Millennium

As you can see, this perspective focuses on the larger organization (the kind that fewer people work for these days) and someone who wants to climb up the organization (something that is less important than self-fulfillment and contribution to many).

The book is at its best when it argues for treating people well, being considerate as though one were dealing with one's neighbor in a small town. That advice is timeless. The book is also excellent in helping to unveil the sources of misconception that cause each of us to overestimate our performance and to misperceive what we need to be doing. I heartily approve of these messages.

If you have read Mark McCormack before, I recommend you skip this book. It will add almost nothing but occasional nuances to what you have learned from him already.

If you have not read him before, I suggest you read one of his earlier books instead. What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School is a classic.

In either case, I suggest you skip this one.

If you insist on reading this book, focus on parts one, three, six, seven and nine. They are the most helpful and appropriate for today.

Ask yourself after you read this book then "Who are the people who can provide relevant perspectives that are relevant for today?" Getting the right advice often means asking the right person.

This book is about career management and office politics. It contains a lot of straight-forward, down-to-earth tips for getting along with co-workers, bosses, and clients. This "Arli$$- agent's" clientele includes Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Venus and Serena Williams. What he offers is common sense as applied to a plethora of topics like goal setting, picking up the check, managing time, dealing with enemies, managing your work- just doing business in a "smart" way. Thinking of all those Olympic atheletes who will be returning to their respective countries to assimilate back into the work force, or pursue endorsements or dreams of gold in 2004, it seems to me another astute book about self-management is timely, especially coming from the chief executive of a sport and entertainment conglomerate like International Creative Management. It is a step up from his previous book, "What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School". Mr McCormack's book seeks to prepare readers for life in the fast lane, and for success. Interesting! A very interesting presentation.

The title just uses the buzzword "internet" to get your attention. It could have been called "career and business tips," which is basically what it is. McCormack's writing has gotten better since his earlier books, so I found this one good on that account. His tips have a bit more depth here, too. He mentions how his 2nd wife has helped him learn to "stop and smell the roses," and perhaps that's why this book seems less "combat"-like than some of his past books. Plus, his arrogance, that would bleed between the lines in past books was, thankfully, missing. (For example, in earlier books he said, "I made a lot of money at a young age, so I never resented others who did," not considering that perhaps some readers are young and broke, or old and broke, and might resent HIM. And also he said, "99% of people should work for someone else," which conveniently puts him in the elite 1%, and, never mind that through most of history, until the industrial revolution, most people were self-employed.) Anyway, this book is readable and helpful, with some tips I don't think I would have seen anywhere else. He does reuse anecdotes that he uses in other books, but I didnt' mind. If you want a general career-tips book, this is as good as any recent ones I've read recently.

Reading "Rachel's" review makes it sound a little like a vegan might enjoy this book? Well, if you are vegan, like me, you WON'T! It is stuffed with recipes including eggs, butter, milk, cream, buttermilk...! VERY few recipes in this book are truly vegan! So it eliminates white sugar...big whoop...true vegans don't use white sugar to begin with (bone char)! I am not saying this isn't a good book - but it ain't for vegans! (Unless you are a vegan with a whole lotta money and don't mind paying [money] for about 15 recipes...!)

This is such a great book, the whole thing is pleasing and wonderful to look at. And the majority of the recipes I've tried you'll die over! Even ones that don't require any sweetner in them at all. Such as the Banana-Nut Pancakes. Moist, tender and wonderful!

My brother and I are very sensitive to even organic sugar and fruit juice is the only thing we've found that doesn't affect us so this book is a treasure!

However, note that Fruit-Sweet is this chef's favorite sweetner. BUT he does tell you how to make your own concentrated sweetner with frozen juice concentrate. VERY NICE! Be warned, I thought I'd be daring and try pineapple juice and made the peanut butter cookies. Don't do it! White Grape Juice and White Grape & Peach Juice are the ones I've found that you can use for any recipe.

Everything in here takes a little time. But if you want something sweet and can't get anything at the nearby grocery or organic store then invest a little and enjoy this book, it's well worth every penny.

I love to bake. I am not vegan/vegetarian or looking to lower my cholesterol. However, you can be any of those things and still use this book. I have a hyperactive 4 year old on the Feingold Diet. Even tho they don't suggest you eliminate sugar, I feel my son is less high strung when his sugar intake is low. However, he loves yummy baked things. This is where Mani's book comes in. The chocolate chip pecan cookies are really great! I have a jar full..actually not full anymore...downstairs right now. Mani lists substitutions for dairy free, egg free etc... so anyone could use this book. Just keep or add in what you like, and keep out what you don't. Personally, I love dairy and eggs but wanted to do without the sugar. I like that you have options with this book. So many other sugar-free baking books are vegan. The great thing about Mani's book is that anyone can use it and everything in it is fabulous!

This book must have had a stormy editing life. I see no mention of one listed author, a Robin Robertson, on my copy. Also, the CONTENTS list doesn't even mention the sometime added Appendix III which is a piece, titled The PSI-FIELD HYPOTHESIS, written by E. Laszlo, (by far the most interesting piece in the book). Laszlo is identified only in the foot note.

The correct title for this piece should have been THE TRICKSTER'S MANY FACES. Chapter Six which it titled The Meaning of Synchronicity is again all about Hermes (one form of the Trickster), The Trickster at Play, and The Divine Trickster. Their thesis is another attempt at presenting a secular Deity by authors who have all but run out on the rational. Read some of their curtain call: "Like the flea, we must eventually give up our effort to penetrate the impenetrable and surrender to a reality which we cannot master but to which we must submit. In the end, to be honest to our exploration of synchronicity we must ourselves surrender to it. ... Through surrender we learn to move with the rhythms that flow through our existence and in so doing open ourselves to the wellsprings of life that are the gift of the divine Trickster." (P 144). Thankfully, this was the end of their work. All that was missing was an "Amen." Read this book with diminished expectations. The Authors were almost DROWNED by such materials as they dared to swim in. I felt like throwing them a life line.

I read the first edition of this book years ago and the concepts in it have haunted me ever since. Then, I bought my own copy of this second edition and found that the ideas contained in it had lost none of their power and were every bit as profound as I had remembered.

Briefly, this book deals with the concept of synchronicity or meaningful coincidence. It deals with it on two levels, the level of science and the level of myth. Indeed, it is shown that synchronistic events in themselves demonstrate the interpenetration of matter (the realm of science) and mind (the realm of myth.) Synchronicity is shown to leap the gap between not only the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind, but between the world of mind and the world objective events. In this way it corresponds very well to the myth of Hermes, the god of boundaries, and the messenger between the world of the gods and the world of men.

The greatest strength of this book over other treatments of the topic is the clear and up-to-date manner that it addresses the possible scientific explanations of synchronicity. It draws primarily from the world of the new physics. Here is an extremely clear explanation of Bohm's theories on a holographic universe with explicate (physical, day-to-day) and implicate (hidden and fundamental) orders. In spite of the references to the modern world of subatomic physics, it struck me that this sounds remarkably like the hidden currents of the cosmos that occultists have always alluded to. The pattern based theories of Sheldrake, Laszlo, and Chester are also examined and compared. Indeed, the concepts of morphic fields and resonance seem to uncannily resemble the old magical principles of sympathy and correspondence between our own world and the world of archetypes. Indeed, it is shown that a balanced mind (both hemispheres at the same frequency) in deep meditation or prayer may be able to "range" the implicate order and bring about increased instances of synchronicity. Since it is suggested that synchronicity is the real basis for all ESP phenomena ( telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, etc.) it could be said that this is an effective explanation for the concept of sympathetic magic.

The use of the concept of the mythological trickster is especially appropriate and effective. Many times synchronistic coincidences seem to exist for no other reason that to shatter our preconceived and ossified concepts of the universe. That was also the function of Hermes/ Mercurius/ Coyote in mythology. It is also the function of this book in a world still mired in the dogma of materialistic scientism.

The previous reviewer ("Throw out a life line") - who seems to be trying to sell an unpublished science fiction story to Hollywood - is typical of the mental-rational minded types who see the Universe as a big clockwork toy, a camera, a sewing machine and other metaphors governed by his own unique take on Planck's theory (see his website). Whatever. Such hyper-rationalist always miss the point of such informative, playful and subtle books as Comb's and Holland's "Synchronicity".

Maybe the point is indeed to drown - the rational ego that is - which is continually trying to wrap the Trickster up in neat mechanistic metaphors. This book is a wonderful introduction to the archetypes and psychological and scientific theories constellating around the acausal realm of 'coincidences.' I feel in good company with Georg Feuerstein, the late Willis Harman, David Loye and Guy Burneko in recognizing that this book speaks to us at the mythic, mental and integral or intuitional levels of consciousness and holds them all together with a light eloquent style that belies it's intent - as the authors say at the end: "Dance, like play, is a metaphor for a state of being that is both relaxed and disciplined.Both are open and responsive to relaxed intuition... To dance is to move in the rhythm of this entire orchestration. And so we must learn to dance."

Along with many other excellent books on the Trickster - including Lewis Hydes' "Trickster Makes This World", Antoine Faivre's, "The Eternal Hermes", and two classics, Norman O. Brown's "Hermes the Thief", and Raphael Lopez Pedraza's "Hermes' Children," this book reveals a powerful yet hidden god for the Western mind which needs no lifeline back to the leaky ship of rationalism.

This is a very easy to read book about how easy you can fall into the trap of paying a high premium for a company without having any concrete plans for how to achive the value gains through the value chain. He describes with some very good examples how to fall into the trap if you dont have a number of conerstones in place before the acquisition. The major cornerstones of synergy are stratigic vision, operating strategy, system integration and power&culture. These four cornerstones are linked closely together.

Chapter three has a discussion about the premium that the acquirer pay.

Part two in the book is an analysis of corporate acquisition strategies. In this analysis i didn't find anything new that I didn't know in advance

So my conclusion would be: an easy to read book with some very good examples of how wrong it can go (eg. sears, AT&T, Time Warner TBS,...), and he put a lot of emphasis on the importance of having the cornerstones of synergy in place before the acquisition as well as a discussion of competitor reations to acquisitions.

Dr. Sirower does a remarkable job in showing how easy it is to lose the acquisition game by failing to define synergy in terms of real, measurable improvement in competitive advantage. By analysing the acquisition premium with his Required Performance Improvement (RPI) formula, Dr. Sirower shows how to determine in advance when the price is far above the potential value of an acquisition. The way managers who analyse the acquisition premium and concept of synergy can avoid to get caught and how to predict the probability of shareholder losses or gains (although the probability formula is not flawless). Regardless the good work done by Dr. Sirower, I wouldn't be surprised if M&A professionals don't like the book because of its highly critical approach to synergie effects.

Mark L. Sirower's thought-provoking and complex book is actually a critically acclaimed academic study that challenges the reasoning behind corporate acquisitions. Pointing out that acquisitions usually devalue the acquiring companies (a loss from which they rarely recover), Sirower delves into management fundamentals and mathematical analyses to get to the bottom of merger and acquisition problems. Three detailed appendices feature plenty of financial calculations, performance measures and data from various corporate acquisitions to back up his assertions. We [...] recommend this book to those involved in mergers and acquisitions and to other readers intrigued by the inside view of this "carnivorous quest."

I am a great fan of Chamberlain, but found this book hard to digest. It is a compilation of his civil war letters strung together with a little back- ground information (that is mostly confusing, occasionally helpful). Most of the letters are quite boring and tactical in nature (If you find that interesting---sorry---you'll love it!) There are a few really good ones, however that can stand on their own and speak to the true character of the man. I cried twice while reading these, but at other times found myself dreading picking up the book. I'm glad I finished it---and it was worthwhile reading. Trulock is much better!

This book depicts a true American soldier. Joshua Chamberlain's letters and the narrative given by Mark Nesbitt give great insight into JLC's political, personal and military thought. It is a well organized work.

Mark Nesbitt does a wonderful job of organizing the personal letters of Joshua Chamberlain into an informative and enjoyable read. Through the letters, Chamberlain's motives to join the army, his accounts of battles and day-to-day affairs of a soldier's life, and his personal insights bring a new perspective on a man usually know only for his role at Gettysburg. This book allows the reader to get to know many Chamberlain's other accomplishments in life: his family, his career, and his achievements throughout the war.

Gotta say, I was quite disappointed with this book. I am a novice runner who is thinking about getting into trail running -- and I'm also an experienced hiker, climber, etc. I was expecting this book to talk to me about the details of trail running, but instead, it dwells over-long on just being in the backcountry -- just like any other hiking book, but not as well as the best of that genre. So ... I returned it.

I love jumping into new sports but always manage to wind up with a million tedious questions. As a relatively new trail runner, this book answers what I want to know about training for ultras. Now I feel confident that I can bypass the ... personal trainer route AND talk about more interesting things than mileage with my fellow trail running friends. What a relief, all around I'm sure. Too bad it wasn't out 6 months ago when I needed to pick out shoes and started training for my first marathon!

I really, really enjoyed this book. I've always loved running, but for years I always kept to the roads. I always wondered what kind of running experience I would have "in the woods" but never dared to venture off the paved surfaces. This book gave me the confidence to do just that, and I'm amazed at what I've been missing all these years. Animals, scenery, rivers, mountains, sunrises and sunsets... what a treat. Thank you for writing this book. My senses (and also my knees) thank you!

This book has been very helpful in explaining the basics of Exchange server. However, there have been multiple questions that have gone unanswered by this book. If it's intention is to be a complete reference for Exchange, it needs much more detail regarding newsgroups, forms, and client software. I would also like to have seen more detailed instructions on HOW to accomplish something with Exchange. There is a lot of text stating "with Exchange server 5.5, you can do this . . . " fill in the blank, but then there are no follow-up instructions on HOW to accomplish that task. Overall, it is a good beginner's guide, but not very helpful for real-world Exchange administrators who need to use Exchange server to its fullest capacity.

This book is big and it talks about a lot of issues but doesn't get into much detail. Perhaps it was not intended to. It sure gives a good general picture for the beginner, but I would have liked to see more on the Internet features like POP3. In coclusion, it's a good "overall" book on Exchange, but my advice is to supplement it with some smaller specialized books like MS Exchange Server Internet Mail Connector by Spyros Sakellariadis

Using Microsoft Exchange Server

Although this book is rated for more experienced users, it does not cover advanced topics such custom AppWizards (there is a brief mention to a reference that I was unable to locate). There is quite a bit of very basic topics covered, like the installation, which I feel most developers do not need to discuss. There are also sections written much like the Microsoft Windows documentation, that is, designed for those who need help pointing the mouse and starting applications, and other sections that I found useful. This book could have been much shorter or covered more advanced topics. I recommend this book to those with experience in C++ programming, but are new to Visual C++. You will also need another book to cover MFC. M. Evans mje@efn.or

This book has five sections. It starts from introducing Visual C++ Tools. The last section is Advanced Windows Programming. Even this book is aimed for experienced programmers, it covers a lot of things in detail. It is easy to follow authors' thinking logic. If you are a beginner, and want to be an experience programmer, it is easy. Don't skip any sections, start from the first section, and read the whole book. That's it.

Excellant book for the beginners implementing a source tests and theory. Really great work, looking for next book on VC5.00.

Yeah, it's good for the storyteller, and players of mage would surely prefer seeing a dragon or a griffin every once in a while to the everyday werewolf, vampire and the so. However, the advise not to use it for player characters because characters are too powerful is something that needs to be kept in mind. Rather just use it sporadically to add up to the fun, not just to let beasts roam the mortal world. Be cautios, but outside of that, the supplement is fine.

While intended foremost for use with the game Mage: Sorcerer's crusade, a medieval spin-off of the popular Mage: The Ascension game, the Bygone Beastiary is can practically stand alone (if you're already familiar with *some* white-wolf game), and is a fantastic addition to any Mage game, particularly if you don't want to incorporate the banality of predictable Garou and Kindred on every streetcorner, and/or you like custos, familiars, and so on, but don't own the anciently-out-of-print Ascension's Right Hand. (This is more comprehensive than Ascension's right hand for Consors and mythic beasties, anyhow.) Also very creative, mythic thinking.

Not the best supplement for White Wolf that I've seen, but definitely useful and I like that they paid more attention to background and story than stats (though..check out the health levels for mundane frogs, I laughed). Get it if you work at all with changeling or the dark ages/Renaissance games.